A Special Interest Group of the American Society for Indexing

Information on Indexing

Beyond Book Indexing: A Review

Professionals
trained in back of the book indexing often feel both intrigued and
somewhat intimidated by the novelties collectively termed "web
indexing." However, like settlers in America bringing their seeds and
seedlings from abroad, they will find a new habitat in which some of
what they cherish as familiar will still flourish. Beyond Book
Indexing, a new Information Today Incorporated and American Society of
Indexers publication, provides a much-needed reference with which they
may chart the unknown seas of web indexing.

This resource
compiles "how-to" articles useful for several distinct purposes. Thus,
an indexer might pick up this text at different points in her or his
professional development: first to skim, then to plan, and still later
to go back to it to meet another goal, for it satisfies a multiplicity
of purposes.

Recurrent features include pointers on why an
hourly rate is more reasonable than a per-page rate, on how an indexer
can get work and market herself or himself, and on where to find more
information in both print and online resources.

The text
serves the purposes of the following people (or the same person at
different points in her or his professional evolution):

An indexer who wants to learn how to do embedded indexing
will learn to start with word processing software that includes an
indexing module. Another tip advises first completing a stand-alone
index by using the familiar dedicated indexing software, then doing a
page number sort, and finally embedding the codes in the files.

An indexer who wants to use computers as a marketing tool
will find much advice about how to compose a web site with a free tool
like Netscape's Composer and to integrate the web site into a business
plan. Other topics include how to post sample indexes on a web site and
how to use email discussion lists.

An indexer seeking to understand the range and some specifics of web indexing will encounter a multifarious discussion of several types:

external directories of web sites;

internal indexes of web sites,
including discussions of how to create navigation structures
that improve access to the site's contents and of how to
compare search engines to web indexes;

meta tags for web pages to ensure that search engines will catalogue the web pages properly;

indexes to computer texts;

online help as a form of web indexing;

indexes to online publications;

CD-ROM indexes that may include multimedia features such as sound and images.

On
the way to looking up any particular topic, the reader will glean
insights that will render the unfamiliar world of computer-transformed
indexing less strange. Embedded indexing and web indexing, for
instance, share a common feature of having floating locators. Having no
page references on a web site creates such challenges as distinguishing
between a substantive and a superficial discussion and differentiating
multiple references. Solutions proposed and explained here include
writing "locator text," sorting locators, rating them, or even going to
the extent of creating multiple indexes. Thus, besides giving direction
to an indexer seeking information about a particular topic, the book
begins to demystify the entire subject. It will be a purchase that will
prove valuable, not once, but many times.